Monthly Archives: June 2007

Today (Monday 6/11) the Senate will vote on a “no-confidence” resolution against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for lying about … well, everything. Of course we want all Senators to vote “yes” but that’s not nearly enough for the man who authorized illegal wiretapping of thousands (millions?) of U.S. citizens and illegal torture of anyone Emperor Bush deems an “enemy combatant.” For those and other reasons, tell your Senators and Representatives to Impeach Alberto Gonzales:

One of the results of being in the thick of things here is that you quickly learn to distinguish incoming missiles from outgoing artillery. The importance of this of course, is that for incoming missiles it is a good idea to hit the deck or get to a bunker. For outgoing artillery it is important to tease the soldiers who hit the deck or run for a bunker.

Oddly, I have slept better here at Echo than I have anywhere for the past two years. I donâ€™t even wake up for outgoing rounds anymore. Odd. Soldiers are so complacent about the rockets now, that when a rocket landed outside the DFAC and we all cleared out, everyone returned within 5 minutesâ€¦ 15 minutes before the staff returned.

The soldiers, who had not gotten a chance to eat before the alert, simply went behind the counters and helped themselves. I may have joined others in indulging in my childhood desire to operate the ice cream scooper. Eventually we got busted, however, when the staff came out of their bunker and seized control of the ladles.

With the countdown on his presidency eagerly watched by his foes, George W. Bush’s remaining admirers have been pressing him to declare his projects for after January 2009.

“President Clinton is working for AIDS treatment around the world; President Carter is conquering guinea worm and now moving on to malaria; I’ve wanted to do something closer to home,” President Bush said; “I’m becoming a NASCAR driver.”

Press secretary Tony Snow explained: “It’s not all that different from what he’s doing now: he’ll try to stay out ahead of the people chasing after him, encourage gas, oil, and rubber consumption, and advertise his sponsor, the great ex-American company Halliburton.”

The First Lady, Laura Bush, exulted: “It’s the perfect job for him. Georgie has always enjoyed model cars, and now he can drive real ones and get away from those pesky Secret Service chauffeurs. He can forget all those big words he’s had to learn in the White House. We’ll be installing a 2.5-mile race track on the ranch,” she added, “paid for by Exxon-Mobil.”

Equality Fraternity Reality

Strong children

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken ones" —Frederick Douglass

Ignorance and Power

“Ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” -- James Baldwin

Money is power….

"Money is power. In Congress, in state legislatures, in city councils, in the courts, in the political conventions, in the press, in the pulpit, in the circles of the educated and the talented, its influence is growing greater and greater. Excessive wealth in the hands of the few means extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness as the lot of the many.”
— Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States 1877-1881

Let the people think….

Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.”
-- William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, 1693

Taxes & budgets

Women's rights

Dehumanization

"The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human" - Aldous Huxley

Money is power

Money is power. In Congress, in state legislatures, in city councils, in the courts, in the political conventions, in the press, in the pulpit, in the circles of the educated and the talented, its influence is growing greater and greater. Excessive wealth in the hands of the few means extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness as the lot of the many.”
-- Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States (1877-1881)

Riots

“Riots are the language of the unheard” -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Cost of War

Currently nearing $1.6 trillion, for Iraq and Afghanistan alone; watch it grow at Cost of War

The cause of war

"The cause of war is the preparation of war." -- W.E.B. DuBois

Presidential limits

"The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

--Barack Obama, 2007

Totalitarianism

“To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country.”

-- George Orwell

Reimagining capitalism

"Politicians argue over big government so they can avoid talking about big capitalism" -- William Greider in The Nation

The problem with democracy

Progressive calendar

Click hereto view calendar of progressive events in and near Chester County.Agenda view (click in upper right of calendar) may be best.

Links to other sites:

Let the people think …

"Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed."
--William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, 1693

On humor

"When oppressed peoples have no other remedy they resort to humor" --E. O. Wilson

Koch Brothers index

For a list of all posts relevant to the Koch Brothers on this site, click here.

Truth and consequences

"If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out." -- Oscar Wilde

Power

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

-- Frederick Douglass, 1817-95

Schools, parents, democracy

“What the best and wisest parent wants for his child, that must we want for all the children of the community. Anything less is unlovely, and left unchecked, destroys our democracy.” -- John Dewey

Search

Liberty v. power

“The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.”
-- William Hazlitt, 1778-1830

On war

"No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic." - A. J. P. Taylor

Bill Moyers says

"The opposite of poverty is not wealth; it is justice."

Ain’t they got no shame

In the name of peace
They waged the wars
Ain't they got no shame

-- Nikki Giovanni

Need & Greed

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not for every man's greed" -- Gandhi

Normalcy?

"If this is normalcy, I'd hate to see what real trouble is" - the late Daniel Shore on Iraq, Morning Edition, NPR, 3/29/08

Freedom and tyranny

"...So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom,
those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men." --Voltaire, 1764

Thoughts on War

"Every war, when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac." -- George Orwell

"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." -- Leon Trotsky

Total Cost of War

The cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to Pennsylvanians alone is over $57,000,000,000 and to the entire US is over $1.3 trillion; now wouldn't that be helpful in Harrisburg and DC these days? Track our dollars' alarming and destructive disappearance at CostofWar.com

The American oligarchy

“The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on equally strenuous efforts on the part of an American public anxious to believe in egalitarian fictions and unwilling to see what is hidden in plain sight.” — Michael Lind, To Have and to Have Not